No professional acting experience is necessary to apply to play on the Fab Four in upcoming show Hamburg Days
No professional acting experience is necessary to apply to play on the Fab Four in upcoming show Hamburg Days
An open casting call has been issued for actors to apply to play The Beatles in a new BBC show. Hamburg Days was announced earlier this month and is a six part series exploring the early days of the Fab Four as they refined their sound in the German port city.
It is based on the book by musician Klaus Voormann and photographer Astrid Kirchherr, who spent time with the group during this period before they went on to change the world. The 1999 memoirs has been adapted by lead writer Jamie Carragher, who hails from Merseyside, and Generation War producer Benjamin Benedict.
Klaus will act as a consultant on the upcoming series, which has been acquired by the broadcaster from UK-based independent film and television company Turbine Studios. Casting is now underway and you can now apply to play one of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison or Ringo Starr as part of a new casting call.
Applicants can also apply to play either Pete Best or Stuart Sutcliffe, two significant figures from this period who are both sometimes referred to as the Fifth Beatle. Gary Davy Casting has shared details on the criteria for those interested as they are only accepting applicants from male actors aged between 18 – 23.
The applicants must be actors or musicians with an interest in acting. However, no professional acting experience necessary. It added: “All applicants must have great Liverpool accents and be available to shoot in the UK and Germany between April – July 2026.
If you wish to apply, you can email a one minute video with name, age and musician/any acting experience to [email protected]
Actors with an agent have been asked to share this note with their agents to suggest you for the role. The BBC are excited to bring this important moment in pop culture to life with the new show.
Sue Deeks, head of scripted pre-buy acquisitions at the BBC, said: “Hamburg Days is the fascinating story of how, in the space of two short years, a raw young band from Liverpool honed their music skills in Hamburg, before returning home to become an overnight worldwide success.
“It is an incredible story, accompanied (of course) by an amazing soundtrack.”
Lead writer Jamie’s previous credits include being a part of the writer’s room on HBO masterpiece Succession. The writer is originally from Birkenhead and spoke to the ECHO in an exclusive interview ahead of the show’s final season in 2023.
The writer shares a name with the legendary Liverpool FC defender and laughed as he told the ECHO the Reds great has followed him around his whole life. He said: “I can remember in primary school when he wasn’t playing so well and I’d get a load of stick in school when he scored two own goals vs Man United.
“And then, of course, under Rafael Benitez he became one of the best centre backs around so I started to get called the s**t Jamie Carragher. It changed pretty quickly.” The name is purely a coincidence as the 32-year-old was born years before Carragher first made his debut and reveals his Everton FC supporting dad would never name him after a Reds’ player.
The writer is a Liverpool FC fan and credits his love for the club with helping him break into the industry when he moved to California for an arts journalism course with hopes to build networks in Hollywood.
He said: “I used to get up very early in the mornings there and watch the Liverpool games with a friend of mine and he was the only person I really knew in the industry. He was an agent’s assistant in LA.
“I bugged him the whole year if he heard of any assistant jobs or reception jobs. After a year of bugging him at every Liverpool game he said ‘you don’t have any experience so it’s not going to happen’. I came back to the UK with my tail between my legs.”
However, the Everyman Young Writer’s programme alumni was soon given his chance after moving to the UK when the same contact mentioned there was an opening for an assistant job going on a new show called Succession.
The writer hasn’t looked back since as he moved up the ranks in the writer’s room and is now excited to bring the story of The Beatles’ early days to life with the upcoming show, which starts filming next year.
